Blue Trust Inc. Has $30,000 Stock Position in TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC)

Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of TransAlta Co. (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) by 1,381.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,237 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,951 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in TransAlta were worth $30,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of TransAlta in the second quarter worth approximately $514,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of TransAlta by 25.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,498,451 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $87,242,000 after purchasing an additional 2,116,907 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia boosted its stake in shares of TransAlta by 93.8% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 1,525,761 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,688,000 after purchasing an additional 738,338 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of TransAlta in the 1st quarter valued at $3,779,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of TransAlta by 71.9% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 643,988 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,131,000 after buying an additional 269,444 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 59.00% of the company’s stock.

TransAlta Trading Up 2.7 %

NYSE TAC opened at $8.74 on Friday. TransAlta Co. has a one year low of $5.94 and a one year high of $10.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.43, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 0.88.

TransAlta (NYSE:TAC) (TSE:TA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $425.37 million for the quarter. TransAlta had a net margin of 18.41% and a return on equity of 47.71%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.17 EPS. Research analysts expect that TransAlta Co. will post 0.75 earnings per share for the current year.

TransAlta Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, September 1st will be paid a $0.044 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This is an increase from TransAlta’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.04. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.01%. TransAlta’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.97%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded shares of TransAlta from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th.

TransAlta Company Profile

TransAlta Corporation engages in the development, production, and sale of electric energy. It operates through Hydro, Wind and Solar, Gas, Energy Transition, and Energy Marketing segments. The Hydro segment holds interest of approximately 922 megawatts (MW) of owned hydroelectric generating capacity located in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario.